Anyone here /dropship/ or other /shopify/ stores?

This isnt a business thread, its a larp, nobody will buy shit to wait years to get delivered while they can pick same shit up at amazon or ebay.

Dropshipping is a meme of the past same as affiliate marketing, this isnt 2003 anymore

Nice you made my daily swing in crypto working your ass off to make chink middlemen money bro

Agreed, but this stuff is still relevant for standard operating shops, ie buying and storing stock. I sold a few products at 30-40% markup on eBay. Not a whole lot, all low cost, but the profit margin is there. I need to secure a stable market though, so far my sales are slow because of competition. Can't beat the big guy in any aspect.

Suppliers aren't always in China. I agree with you that people (myself included) would rather purchase from eBay or Amazon.

HOWEVER if the product you're selling isn't on either of those, I can see it working.

Does anyone else have troubling learning about eCommerce? All the resources I find are so commercial and everyone involved in it seems so slimy and fake (esp. social media/marketing).

>Suppliers aren't always in China
No, but your profits are. Online buyers aren't looking for quality, they're looking for price.

Yea, i can definitely see it working IF and only IF your supplier is within 2 hour difference in timezone of your location.

You forgot your shoppify referal code shill.

One plan I've got is to start importing Korean makeup (high quality, cheap), and sell it on a site that caters for Westerners (Australians). I've seen a few brick and mortar examples and there is some online competition, but it's only a few crappy stores.

>be me
>poorfag
>newfag

Only have 20$ at hand for advertising. Is it possible to import from oberlo and then advertise on fb and get conversions to make a profit enough to scale one go at a time? Also, I would really appreciate it if you'd mentor me. Is there a way you'd be willing to communicate? Please do God's work senpai

Is shopify the best platform for selling shit?

I'm curious as well. What's the appeal to the customer? Why does Shopify work vs tictail or any other e-commerce site?

I don't want to pay a subscription to simply host a store, I'd at least like to see some traffic with it.

>luxury accessories
>aliexpress

so you're selling cheap chinese made knockoffs for premium prices?

that's a risky business model lad

Does your shop accept bitcoin? If not it's a failure

I run a Shopify store for a clothing brand. Our suppliers are in China. We send them designs and have them manufacture it, receive the samples from them and modify it till we're satisfied.

Marketing is the most important part in being successful at this. You also constantly have to test new strategies and marketing channels. For example if you've been killing it at Facebook ads right now and that's all you're doing, one day it could stop working and your sales will plummet

SHUT THE FUCK UP NIGGER

With AliExpress I order one product at a time - so there's no risk there. I liked luxury items because I they're makred up by $60. I only needed to sell two for a 'good day'.

Now I sell about 10/day, make $1,500 revenue, costs me $700 to ship, $200 for my facebooks ads - about $600 profit on a good day.

This is all I use. Instagram stories generate incredibly good data/returns.

It's the business model of most consumer goods companies.

Most consumers aren't savvy enough to find chinese suppliers and don't like the risk. I offer refunds and good customer service.

Mainly, I offer a 'brand' and the feeling of quality. That's what people want.

Shopify is basically squarespace for ecommerce. It's simple for me to set up in a few minutes, install themes and LOTS of addons for things like remarketing, upsells, marketing automation.

The drawbacks are it gets quite costly (still only 2 - 5% of revenue though...) so it could be done cheaper with WooCommerce vis Wordpress.

Much like wordpress blogs, I think Shoplift stores are easy to spot - .when I see one I know it's probably not a 'legit' business (mine is not a 'legit' business). However, most people in the world don't recognise this.

Shopufy isn't the reason the store generates money - it's all FB & Insta ads.

What can you telle that can get me on a starter setup making basic profits to get my head wet?

Exellent man. Let me know how it goes.

I know nothing about makeup.

How are getting your products in front of people?

Personally, I had to go $150 'into the black' before I made a profit. I#ll be honest, $20 probably isn't enough, simply because Stripe and PayPal delay payouts for 7 days, and you've got to actually pay for the product your shipping.

If you're a bit more flexible though I recon you'd be able to find 1 - 2 sales from free advertising, get $50-100 from it then fund your FB ads. In my experience $20 isn't enough to figure out what works.

I'd be happy to offer more advice - tell me how to get in touch.

The best tip I can offer is just copy and steal from other dropshipping sites. Figure out their targeting. I've seen people copy my products and then had my ad prices rise a bit - it's clearly profitable for them for a bit.

Without giving yourself away, can you show me an example of some dropshipping sites?

Do customers not care that shipping takes like 2-3 weeks?

>free advertising
How come?

On an unrelated note I've had lots of arguments with friends about the morality of this. They take me to task on it, then I usually point out that their jacket would have cost Primark a fraction of what they bought it for. The pint they're drinking is likely a 1000% markup.

I understand why people initially have an emotional response to it (their only income is as a wagecuck), but, in the world we live in, it's nothing out the ordinary.

Remember that if you're posting on /g/, you're not like most people. Most people perceive my store as just trustworthy and reliable as somewhere like Amazon - for the most part it is, as I offer tracking codes and good customer service.

Even though my prices are a significant markup to what I pay, they're much lower that what they've ever seen before.

Some do, but I clearly state how long it will take on the site and offer tracking codes.

Here's an example of one that appears to be doing well:

Google Advwords gives you $200 free credit. If you put the time and post of forums, facebook groups, reddit etc. you might be able to reach enough people to get your first few sales. Just enough profit to get enough to spend on FB ads to learn earn how FB ads work.

Alright this is the interesting sheet. As you can see, there's a lot of money flowing out and in, the total profit margin is only 20% or so.

I'm still very new, hope to get a bit better. I've got a revenue target for the end of the year.

ideas on shit I can sell?

I was thinking of selling shit that girls buy to 'Instagram' their room .

so basically shit you see at urban outfitters but cheaper.

..Aaaaand here's daily profit/loss since it began. I'm at about $3.5k banked profit.

I would be at $5k, but i hate three major orders which turned out to be with stolen credit cards - hence the big losses where I shipped lots of products and then had to return the revenue.

Sounds like a good idea. You've really got to figure out what makes those kind of girls tick, though.

Before you spend any money, watch Frankling Hatchett's videos, then fall down a YouTube hole of those types of videos.

Spend a lot of time looking at online stores in that niche.

Thanks. I'm going to give this some thought today. My initial investment costs are going to kill me, and I'm not even actually on Facebook. Am I already screwed?

I appreciate all your advice so far. I know you don't have time to carry me to my first sale, but one last question: what is your average ship time and do customers seem happy?

Sorry i snuck 2 in there.

>I had to go $150 'into the black'
In the red, you mean. Black is profit.

>I'd be happy to offer more advice - tell me how to get in touch.
Just make threads on Veeky Forums, mang, we're all aching for some guidance here.

>Here's an example of one that appears to be doing well:
You missed the link, bro.

What is your profit?
On what platforms do you advertise?
When did you start, any book you suggest to read?
Drop shipping or do you buy in bulk and store them then ship?

Better yet, do what everyone else does and post it on YouTube, except don't beat around the bush like they do.

>Make 5 bucks a day by selling blankets
>Start store on estore.com
>Pick a name (Outland Blankets)
>List products from urilama Tibetan supplier
>Source adspace from FB, google

Is this a rough general idea?

Your avg. sale is $133, what could you possible be buying from china that would warrant such a price?

Read the thread.

Would also like to inquire about the benefits of bulk buying and storing. Seems risky for a low traffic newbie.

>Better yet, do what everyone else does and post it on YouTube, except don't beat around the bush like they do.
What's that about? What do you mean?

You're right, silly me.

I'll stik around and give advice.

I watched a video today about succeeding on Shopify, the guy spent 30 minutes explaining what a REAL niche is. A fake niche is couch owners; couch cleaner is hard to sell. No one loves their couch enough to buy from a small online shop. However, supporting a dog charity makes tons.

That's great and all, but if you're not aware of what buyers are passionate, why are you even trying to sell?

I haven't even started yet, but that's just common sense.
>Find buyers who will buy
Ok, but where do I find them? How do I get them to visit me? What makes them inclined to buy from me? What should I expect to invest in this? Who is the best e-commerce host for a beginner?

Read the thread lads. I started with YouTube videos and the BlackHatWorld forum

All my sales come from Facebook, so that's where my expertise is.

Avg ship time i tink is 15 days - it's bad, I know.

I receive emails from 20% of customers asking where there packge is. I respond with a tracking

5% kick up a huge fuss

2% have disputed the charges, but i win half of them.

what i meant is if youre selling fake name brand products (and if you're buying them from aliexpress, they are 100% fake) you may get a cease and desist from the real brand or worse they may pursue legal action to recover money you made selling under their brands

i used to sell fake Beats headphones on ebay until i got an email from a lawfirm telling me to stop immediately or they will take legal action

but if thats not what youre doing than there's nothing to worry about

protip: buy SD card readers for $.01 on aliexpress, sell them locally for $1 or even $2
however, these little shits will prolly kill the SD cards after a while... so make sure you aren't sellling them to people who trust you

also, there are groups on facebook to sell shit, so just spam all the local groups you can find
that's to start, btw. with the money you make, buy and resell (at 2x) more expensive stuff

>Selling for less than a dollar profit face to face
It's like you think I'm normal.

I can't tell who is legit and who isn't. I made a small amount on crypto but I can't handle the stress and the risk (poorfag). I did try mining so in a sense I got a small taste of business and I'm hooked. I'd like to try dropshipping because it seems like a legitimate opportunity but whenever I look into it all I see are Jews selling get-rich-quick.pdf for $30 a pop. I'm hoping some of you guys can point me in the right direction

tl;dr: Can I get started on a shoestring budget? I know Linux, I know servers, I know some basic webdev/etc. I have 3k to 5k USD and nothing but free time right now.

If you have 3-5k to invest don't fucking dropship. Build an actual store that you're interested in with physical inventory.

>3-5k
>physical store
That's just not enough as far as I know.

Even 10k won't get you shit starting a physical store

He fought in WW2 so this could happen. Hope he's happy.

How much did it cost for you to get started? And literature for a noob that you'd recommend?

Look at my profit/loss chart for an idea of what I had to spend to start turning a profit.

I watched a lot of YouTube examples, made notes. Once YouTube taught be the shape of the industry, I spent time looking at other people's shops and lifting ideas.

Franklin Hatchett is really good.

Even if some of them are trying to sell ebooks (franklins is $97 lol), a lot of them do have good stuff to say. So you can learn from the get-rich-quick idiot - they're essentially just running a business that markets at business owners, after they outgrew/got bored of normal goods.

Dropshipping is really just marketing.

Try to find youtube example where they actually put together the ads.

Everyone read this thread start to finish: blackhatworld.com/seo/journey-to-10k-a-day-shopify-aliexpress-fb-ads.912660/

then look up a site called 'cloud and terrace' as a good example

I'm getting so sick of this shit.

Only make a couple sales a day and it never ends up being profit.

The absolute state of Veeky Forums

Physical stores are dying and you need to invest well over 3-5k in one.

what do you sell?

I have a general store and im testing out a bunch of different things, making facebook pages for that niche and advertising with it.

I have no problem getting a ton of likes and shares on my ads but only a couple of people a day will ever buy anything.

bump

i dont want the only business thread on Veeky Forums to die ffs

Turning google captcha on in Umatrix to post this. I know how it feels.

I can see why the Robinhood thread talks about safe spaces.

I'm opening physical shop (services) soon but willing to dive into a dropship on the side to bring in money to pay bills.

I've got me a niche to fill - do you deal with US customers only or non-US ones OP?

>today, OP was not a fag.
thx anonbro

Is there no option to insure or cover those losses? Seems unfair if you couldn't know the cards were fake...

please join this discord, you know what you're talking about and you provide some really good information, don't want this conversation to end because the thread dies please, you can say your purple guy or something lol, server has like 200+ people all dropshippers

discord.gg/88DKJza

Are you selling branded luxury goods?

like Ray Bans, Oakleys, fake Villebrequin swimsuits?

What was rough startup cost for physical shop? Also the single biggest difficulty you encountered in starting the shop?

I'm still spending & costs mounting. I'm in Europe & things typically more expensive than US or Asia (rent, insurance & fucking shipping so far). Expect to spend ~€5k keeping things very simple & doing lots myself for a while.

Staying motivated - I can do HTML staticpage for the site but want to do Wordpress so it is easier to update going forward. Learning php as we speak but everything else slows. I keep telling myself to keep the big picture in view, but that can be hard working wagecuck nights until it pays for itself.

I'm looking forward to having staff - not a people person so I'll have to hire someone to hire them.

I've got good people to tap into if stuck - I'll wait til I can offer money before calling them in (even a small amount). That's something else as I realise I can't do it all myself.

I'm looking forward to it though. :)

OP you state in the thread that Shopify gets expensive. Can you elaborate?

As far as i know its $30 a month, plus like 3% fee on what you sell which imo is negligible.
Not interested in dropshipping but i have a couple ideas for niche clothing lines that i think could do well

>What was rough startup cost for physical shop?

Probably around $50,000

bump, this

Currently reading this thread
>quote: "I'm not old enough to apply for a credit card"
>my fucking face when he's in high school

>Any unsatisfied customers?
>Yes
>How do you deal with the situation
>I ignore them

tfw OP disappeared and this thread is dead and it's just me myself and I

But! You could rent a storage unit and build a bit of inventory from suppliers and have better control of your shipping times while building a website

A huge component of the business model is that you're not locked into your inventory

ad campaign -> sell product -> make money -> scale up -> make more money -> etc

something goes to shit -> cease ads, remove product from site, done.

What happens when you decided to stock 10 units? oh shit now you're forced to either sell them or take a loss... but your ad campaign isn't converting anymore or your costs are through the roof and it's no longer profitable to sell these things, what then>

etc

Thanks for the thread, really got my noggin joggin. Appreciated even if you aren't around

bump anyway because fuck incessant crypto spam

He's probably selling nameless chink shit as a fantasy luxury brand. Like you could come up with a fancy sounding name and write a bio about how it was established by this and that fantasy designer and it strives to deliver impeccable quality at a reasonable price yadda yadda, make a fancy looking site with heavily made up images and there you go.
You have to understand the vast majority of people make most or their decisions based on what vibes a certain thing gives them, and how good it makes them feel in one way or another.
Make them feel good by telling them they just stumbled upon this brand which sells items that look like they're high class on first glance and on product images for a price they can afford. Make them feel like they shot above their league with the purchase, and they will quickly develop a kind or brand loyalty or a positive emotional attachment even if the product itself is mediocre or somewhat shitty.

Your description brings to mind Daniel Wellington watches heh

There is some good info here, even if it is >le reddit
reddit.com/r/juststart/

This, lol.

Nothing they can do

See this is the problem with learning eCommerce.

I can't take a guy seriously when it's so damn obvious he's trying to sell you something. Literally 'get rich quick' flashing banner ad tier.

I've been following Franklin hatchett for years. Dude is as legit as they come and gives loads of good info for free

>"Alright guys WHATS going on?!?!? *Gives obvious advice that everyone already knows* Alright guys if you liked those tips and you're ready to CRUSH it and make LOTS of money, I've got a link in the description for my course etc etc"
>Click link
>$3000 BUY NOW BUY NOW BUY NOW YOU WILL LITERALLY BE A MILLIONAIRE LOOK HERES A PIC OF ME ON A YACHT! THAT WILL BE YOU TOO IF YOU GIVE ME $3K CMON GUYS

Literally everyone of those Youtubers with the exception of like, one that i've seen but he's boring as fuck

btw if you're wondering who that one guy is, look up Loser2Winner.

He gives honest, realistic advice and tells you straight up how hard it is and what you need to expect and do.
He isn't too boring I guess. Just not seizure inducing like the others

Hey everyone I'm back after a heavy night

I'm going to keep this thread going once I'm on my laptop

This really hits the nail on the head. Daniel Wellington was a big inspiraition - they're incredibly cheap watches that sold for £120+ when they first came out and were on trend.

Thats how you get rich, you make other people rich by making u rich.

Y are you still poor faggit

I am and i'm fairly new. I started a few weeks ago. Pic is my earnings so far. Goal is about 100 USD daily. I'm struggling when it comes to facebook ads specifically optimizing it. Any tips when it comes to facebook ads?

For me 'optimising' is just killing the adverts that don't work. My real success came from $200/day budgets and setting the manual bid very high. I set a $60 bid per purchase - the result was a $10 cost per purchase the first day. It usually evens out to $30 in the long run.

I've never seen an adset get LESS expensive over time - maybe I'm doing something wrong.

Do you retarget? Do you have live chat on your website? (You don't have to man it all the time, it's mainly the appearance)

If profit is an issue, I'd recommend upping your prices. I've not experimented with prices much, but I suspend they're more price inelastic than we think.

I also watched Loser2Winner when I started. I didn't watch his technique videos (not sure if he has any...) but it made me realise that I need a concrete plan to get it off the ground, and made me think of that initial $150 lost as my 'training' fee - you learn so much by failing.

It's not *hard* work - but you need to approach it in the same way you a approach a day job. I only spend ~4 hours a week on it, but you have to make a plan, make lists.

It's me in this thread by the way: blackhatworld.com/seo/journey-to-100-day-proft-fb-adverts-shopify-aliexpress.939032/

I go into a little more detail.

This is actually pretty genius. Korean Facial Scrubs/Masks are all the rage right now.

Make the logo legitimate and you have Luxotica's business model

>For example if you've been killing it at Facebook ads right now and that's all you're doing, one day it could stop working
This. Have multiple entry points to your "funnel"

>No one loves their couch enough to buy from a small online shop. However, supporting a dog charity makes tons.
So... should I sell dog related products and give 5% of the profits to charity so my customers can virtue signal the shit out of it?

most folks here are in America, not Brazil dude.
this. Especially in Australia or London

Do you have separate FB pages for each niche?
Maybe you're advertising is too vague and unfocused?

Thanks for the reply. Gonna experiment with a higher budget and start setting the bid manually myself. I do have a livechat set up on my site and pricing im still trying to figure out but It's in the same ball park as my competitors.

Also, I actually have your BHW thread bookmarked on a reading list (im a jr.vip there). I use to make a killing with SEO and affiliate marketing until google's penguin update leveled me entirely. Now here I am on the PPC side of things doing dropshipping. Also got into amazon merch which is starting to pick up.

chargeback? write mean things on fb / hurt future business?

you mean you don't refund them etc?

you're the OP there?

Yep. I used it as a diary